Colored composition shingle



J. m. GILES $11111 COLORED COMPOSITION SHINGLE Filed Feb. 7, 1955INVENTOR BY $14 6462 MM.

ATTORN EYJ Patented Apr. 7, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 13 Claims.

This application relates to shingles or roofing elements of the typehaving a bituminous base (and usually a granule face) which are normallylmown as asphalt shingles. This application contains matter derived frommy earlier application, Ser. No. 6%,458, filed Nov. 12, 1932.

One of the principal defects of asphalt shingles has been that they havea very flat, relatively unattractive appearance when applied to a roofor wall. I have found that this appearance can be tremendously improvedand the roof or wall can be given a texture which is architecturallyinteresting and which simulates the use of relatively thick shingles ifa color is applied along the butts of the shingles which gradually andirregularly merges into the color of the body of the shingle along azone something short of the point where the shingle will be overlappedby the next row. It is particularly effective if the color applied tothe butt is lighter than the main body color. Attempting to do this byordinary brush painting entirely loses the desired effect, for it isessential to the invention that the color line he irregular and that itmerge gradually from one color mass to the other.

the shingles individually it is expensive and complicated, but I havefound that the desired effeet can be obtained quite simply andinexpensivel'y by putting the shingles or shingle strips on a conveyorwith the butts substantially in contact and running the conveyor under apaint spray. The ordinary workman when putting the shingles rapidly onthe conveyor will not have their meeting line absolutely uniform and theeffect of the paint spray is to concentrate the color near the center ofthe line of application and gradually have it thin out or weaken towardthe margin of the zone covered by the coloredcoating. Thus by thearrangement shown I accomplish both the essential irregularity of ap-.

pearance and the gradual merging of the two color zones without anyparticular care or eiiort. While I have referred to the operation aspalntlng l am using this term in its broad sense as covering a coloredcoating, but it must be borne in mind that the coating selected shouldbe such that bleeding through oi the underbody of asphalt will not ruinthe eilect. Thus for the purpose of this invention I prefer to use. acomposition such as is described in my said earlier application, thoughit is within the spirit of this invention to use other types of paintsor coatings.

If one attempts to accomplish this result by treating In arranging thespray, the nozzle should be positioned at such a distance from theshingles on the conveyor that it will supply to the shingles or roofingstrip a Zone of paint which will cover appreciably less than one-thirdof the shingle length or width of the shingle strip. When this rule isobserved, one can be sure that when the shingle is laid, a portion oftheunderbody will be exposed as well as the coated tip, for shingles arepractically never laid with substantially less than about one-third oftheir length exposed.

This statement is, made having in mind particularly the shingles whichare intended to be laid with their edges forming approximatelycontinuous straight lines. When considering shingles which are intendedto be laid with their edges forming irregular lines (as' in the case ofhenagonal shingles, or the socalled wave line shingles or other similartypes) this same rule can be applied if we consider the median linebetween the lowest extending portion of the butts and the most recessedportion of the butt as being the edge and compute the distance to hecoated as being less than one-third the distance from such median lineto the top of the shingle.

After the shingles are painted or coated, they must be given areasonable opportunity to dry and the coated portionmust be given anexposure to the air to permit the ready evolution of any residualvolatile ingredients which otherwise would tend to affect the asphaltunderhody and cause bleeding, and also to permit the coating to becomethoroughly hardened. In view of the fact that the coating covers lessthan about onethird of the length, the shingles can readily be stackedas-they come from the conveyor with the uncoated portions overlappingand the coated ends sticking out in opposite directions in alter- 'naterows so that the ends will have proper exposure to the air for drying.After the drying time (which will depend upon the temperature used andthe nature of the coating material) a stack of the shingles can bepushed together to make a bundle ready for shipment.

An effect somewhat like that provided by my process and having someofthe desired qualities can be had by coating the shingles with granulesof two colors which blend irregularly along their meeting line to give atwo color effect similar to that had by the sprayed-en coating. Thiswill usually be done by applying the granules in irshingles are to bemade may be sprayed with bands of a proper coating composition and theshingles cut from such sheet. 1

My invention can readily be understood by reference to the accompanyingdrawing in which Fig, 1 represents a plan view of a conveyor and sprayarranged for carrying out my invention; Fig. 2 represents a sideelevation of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 represents a verticaltransverse section showing the stacked relation of a pile of treatedstrips while drying; Fig. 4 shows a section of roofing with the shinglesof my invention in place,.and Fig. 5 shows a set of color. This eifectwill be had by any form of de-.

hexagonal shingles as they come ofi the conveyor after being coated.

hi Fig. 1 the reference character Ill designates usual asphaltcomposition shingle strips having granules embedded in the surfacethereof and having slots l2 extending back from one edge so that whenthe strips are laid in place they will simulate the appearance ofseparate shingles. These slots usually extend back a distance in theorder-of about 40% of the width of the strip but this may vary accordingto the wishes of the individual manufacturer. It is to be understoodthat the edge from which these slots run will appear as the exposed buttedge of the shingles. As the strips or shingles move along on theconveyor, they pass under a spraying device I! provided with a nozzle itwhich is so positioned and adjusted (or manually controlled by theoperator) that the coating sprayed from the nozzle will contact alongthe line of the butts but will not reach in any material quantity backas far as the back ends of the slots l2.

It is to be understood that the paint spray is only illustrateddiagrammatically, and it is not to be understood thatthe drawing showsthe particular type of device used, as paint sprays are now well knownin the art as regular articles of commerce. The important feature 01'the spray used is that it shall be such that the paint or enamelwill beapplied with the color concentrated near the center oi. the line ofapplication and that it will gradually thin out or weaken so that itmerges into the background or base vice which sprays on a paint in theform of broken up droplets rather than in the form of fine streams. Thedroplets in this case will color the butt edges quite solidly and thecolor will gradually and irregularly taper off away from the buttscovering less than that portion of the shingle intended to be exposed.While in this drawing the color is shown as darker than the body of theshingle, this is merely done for the purpose of illustration, asordinarily the shingle will be darker than the color which is applied,though the reverse may be the case.

As the shingles aredischarged from the conveyor, they are arranged instacks, with the butt I portions extending out as indicated in Fig. 3.

In this position, air can enter between the dif-.

ferent layers and adequately dry the coated portions. The drying maytake place in a heated drier or otherwise, depending on the nature ofthe coating used.

While the foregoing description is given only for shingle strips, itwill be readily understood from this how other forms of shingles aretreated. Thus I may use individual shingles placed' with the buttscontacting in the same way as the strips or other strip forms may beemployed such as the hexagonal shingles shown in Fig. 5, in which casethe butt portions may contact or the two colored efiect is obtained befitted in together as shown, but in any event they should be so arrangedrelative to the spray that less than the entire portion which isintended to be exposed on the roof will be coated by the action of thespraying device.

In Fig. 4, a roof is shown made up of shingle strips such as illustratedin Fig. 1 but in th 5 case the colors are indicated with the body of theshingle darker. than the butts. It will be, seen that the eifect issimilar to that had when the light strikes a roof made up of 'thickshingles, giving the appearance of heavy shadows at each line of buttsand an irregular texture to the entire roof. This effect is very much tobe desired architecturally and adds greatly to the value of the product.A suggestion of this appearance oi thickness might be obtained by astraight line of shadow, but in such case the appearance of the roofwould be relatively unattractive, whereas the irregularity oi.application of my shingle and the fact that the colors tone graduallyfrom the darker to the lighter shade gives an appearance of irregularityto the individual shingles which adds greatly to the apparent texture ofthe roof and the value of the product,

What I claim is: 1. A roof structure comprising a plurality of shinglemembers, each such member having two contrasting tone zones which blendinto each other gradually and irregularly and are so arranged that thebutts of each row of such shingle members areof approximately the sametone value and each such row of butts shows a contrast to immediatelyadjacent exposed portions 01' the underlying shingle members.

2. A structure as specified in claim 1, in which the two contrastingtone zones are different tones of a similar color and the zone along thebutts is the lighter.

3. A shingle member having the top portions and butt portions oidiilferent'contrasting tones with the two portions blending togethergradually and irregularly along a general line such that the butt toneextends up a substantial distance but not as much as one-third theaverage length of the shingle.'

4. A relatively thin composition shingle member banded in twocontrasting color tones running transverse the shingle, said bandsmerging together gradually and irregularly and the band covering thebutt being of an average width substantially less than the normalexposure of such butt to the weather when laid on a root in the normalmanner, so that the butts oi one row will contrast with the immediatelyadjacent exposed portions of the underlying row.

5. A shingle as specified in claim 4, in which the butt portion islighter than the top portion.

6. A shingle strip consisting of a strip of asphalt impregnated felthaving granules on one face and having slots extending in from one edgeto suggest individual shingles, such edge being colored a differentcolor from that of the body of the strip and the color of the edgeportion extending back a substantial distance but less than the depth ofsuch slots and gradually and irregularly merging with the color oi thebody of the strip.

7. A structure as specified in claim 6, in which by using granules ofdifferent colors.

8. A shingle member having the top portions and butt portions oidiiferent contrasting tones with the two portions connected by blendingzones of irregular color merging into such two portions,

aosaeaa and resulting from the irregular application of coloring matterin the form of scattered drops,

said blending. zone being so positioned that the butt-tone extends up asubstantial distance but the butt portion and blendingv zone do notconstitute more than one-third of the average length of the shingle.

ii. The process of coloring shingles which comprises the steps ofapplying a coating of a specific color and shade to a band of shinglestock by directing such coating toward the stock in the form or drops,causing such drops to concentrate in strips on such band and graduallyand irregularly to reduce in concentration towards the edges of suchstrips to leave zones substantially uncovered by the coating of thatcolor and shade, and thereafter separating the band of shingle stockinto shingles having butts and tips with diflerent color values whichgradually and irregulariy merge together.

ill. The process of coloring shingles which comprises the steps ofarranging a series or shingle members with the butt ends towards eachother and approximately touching, and spraying a colored coating alongthe line of butts so that the butt ends are coated with a color whichgradually and irregularly merges into a contrasting tone on the upperportions of the shingles.

ii. A process as specified in claim it, in which the shingles are movedsubstantially continuously under a spray of coating.

12. The process of coloring shingles which comprises the steps ofarranging a series of shingle members with the butt ends towards eachother and approximately touching, and spraying a colored coating alongthe line of butts so that the hutt ends are coated with a color whichgradually and irregularly merges into a contrasting tone on the upperportions of the shingles, in which the spraying of such butt colorcovers less than onethird the shingle length.

it. The process of coating asphalt shingles which comprises spraying acolored coating to cover the butt ends of the shingle members but forless than one-third the length of the shingles on an average, arrangingthe coated shingles in a stack with the butts of alternate layersextending in opposite directions and with the coated portions extendingout beyond the top portions of adjacent shingle members so that thecoated butt portions can dry, and then after such butts are drycompressing the sides or such stack to bring the shingle memberssubstantially into registry with each other to form a compact bundle forshipment.

